Reflections on Happy Endings
by Riiko Shea
Summary: Lily doesn't understand happy endings, but James is ready to help her. LJ oneshot. R


A/N: This idea came to me last night when my phone woke me up at 3 in the morning

A/N: This idea came to me last night when my phone woke me up at 3 in the morning. So of course, I stayed up for twenty minutes to write it, so I wouldn't forget. It takes place during Lily and James's seventh year, after James stages his little reformation for Lily. So please, read, review, and enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** We all know it isn't mine. So don't make me say it.

**Reflections on Happy Endings**

Lily Evans sat quietly in the Gryffindor common room, watching as her best friend, Alice, was tugged upstairs by her fiancé, Frank Longbottom. Lily sighed and put her head in her hands.

"Hey Lily what's wrong?" asked James Potter, coming into the common room. He pulled off his Invisibility Cloak and tucked it into his rucksack, which he had left on a nearby table. Then he came and sat down next to Lily on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

She sighed again. "I've been thinking," she murmured.

"What's new?" joked James, and Lily smiled.

"Well, I was thinking about happy endings. Like, for example, why a happy ending constitutes a boy and a girl ending up together, even in real life, not just stories." She leaned her head back and closed her emerald eyes.

James watched her, knowing she wasn't finished.

"So," Lily continued after a moment, "I just don't see why being with a guy, or, in your case, a girl, is such a qualification for having a happy ending."

She opened her eyes and turned to look at James, who was staring into the fire. He felt her gaze on him and said, without looking, "Was that rhetorical, or can I tell you what I think?"

"Go ahead," Lily answered.

"Okay." The black-haired boy turned and looked at the redhead. "Here's my theory. People want 'happy endings', but life always ends in death. Maybe," he said darkly, thinking of Lord Voldemort, "an early death, in times like these.

"So people want someone to share their anxieties about the future with. They want someone who understands them, and their fears. They want to be with someone they love, who, even though it may not happen, can perhaps promise them a happy ending."

Lily nodded slowly, and James was shocked to see tears forming in the corners of her eyes, then rolling, like small diamonds, down her cheeks. "Oh, Merlin, Lily! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!" he gasped.

But before he could apologize any more, Lily totally floored him by hugging him, burying her face in his shoulder. James stiffened for a fraction of a second before patting her back, stroking her hair, and whispering, "It's okay, Lily. It's okay."

After a few minutes, he heard her murmur something. "What?" he asked softly.

Lily looked up at him and said, just as softly. "I want a happy ending."

James smiled a little sadly. She wouldn't mean with him. Despite his true, undying love for her, their relationship was completely platonic, because that was what she wanted. "I'm sure you'll find someone wonderful to share it with," he said, stroking her red curls. It was bitter sweet. He had wanted to do that for so, so long. But, according to her, they "weren't meant to be together," whatever that meant.

Then, Lily totally went out of character, so much so that if he had not known, without a doubt it was her, he would have thought that she was Padfoot or Moony, using Polyjuice potion to pick on him. "James," she said, "I... I want..." and then she mumbled into his shoulder.

"Lily, I can't hear you," he said gently.

She turned her tearstained face up to him again. "James, I want my happy ending to be with _you._"

James's eyes widened, and then he leaned down, and she lifted her head higher, and their lips met.

When they broke the kiss, James smiled at her. "You will have the happiest ending I can make for you, Lily flower," he murmured, and Lily smiled back. She crawled onto his chest as he stretched out on the couch.

"I love you, Lily," he whispered into her hair, wrapping his arms around her.

"I love you too, James. And thanks," she sighed, sleepily. And they slept.

A/N: Okay, I know I already had one of these, but I need to say two more things.

1. James was coming back from the kitchens, in the beginning, which is why he was wearing the cloak.

2. I know this wasn't really funny/fluffy, but I thought it was a good idea... tell me if I'm wrong or right by clicking that little button... you know, the one that says, "Go"? Thanks!

))Riiko Shea((


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